


Dral'Zaivarti

by Kolivans (arka_r)



Series: tumblr drabbles [23]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Culture, Cultural Differences, Found Family, Holidays, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 20:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13256247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arka_r/pseuds/Kolivans
Summary: When Keith goes to space, he thinks he's finally free from those dumb Christmas gift-giving routines that people back at the Garrison love so much. Apparently not, because Galra, as it turns out, have their own version of Christmas.--forRegeith Winter Gift Swapevent on tumblr.





	Dral'Zaivarti

**Author's Note:**

  * For [punkrock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkrock/gifts).



> this fic. also known as: how many worldbuilding stuff i can cram into 1K words fic.
> 
> answer: too many.

When Keith exited his quarter early in the cycle, he was confused to see that everyone was wearing a strip of white ribbon tied to their body. Some tied it around their forearm, while some wore it around their neck like a choker. Some tied it around their head like Hunk’s bandana.

 

Not to mention that the mood all around felt different. More…  _ cheerful? _

 

“Hey, Keith! You can’t go around like that!” Regris called. Keith turned and saw the other Blade was running towards him. Regris too had a white ribbon tied on his tail, right between his spikes.

 

“Go around like what?” Keith asked, still confused. 

 

Regris didn’t answer, and instead pulled out a strip of white ribbon from his belt pouch. “Alright, where do you want to tie it?” he asked.

 

Keith blinked. “Uhh… upper arm?” He still had no idea what the fuss was about, but decided to roll with it instead.

 

“Practical. Good choice”, Regris grinned at him, before quickly tying the ribbon around Keith’s bicep. Keith tried to shake his arm, but found that whatever material the ribbon was made off, it seemed to stuck to his undersuit.

 

Huh.

 

“What is this all about?” he asked again.

 

“It’s  _ Dral’Zaivarti! _ ” Regris cheered, throwing his arms up in the air. 

 

Keith was already used to Regris’ bubbly personality. No, he was more surprised when everyone in the hallway— _ every single one of them _ —joined Regris and shouted various cheers, before continuing with what they were doing. He stared around, feeling lost.

 

“That never gets boring.” Regris hissed out a chuckle. When he turned his eyes back to Keith, his expression softened. “It is a Galran holiday where you spread cheer and kindness all around. You may want to learn about it more from Leader, if you like.”

 

Keith tucked that information at the back of his mind. So he would ask Kolivan, later. “And the white ribbon?”

 

“On  _ Dral’Zaivarti _ , you must wear white clothes to symbolize that you are growing into a better person”, Regris answered, his tail swishing. “Like I said, ask Leader later. Now hurry, we are going to be late for training!”

 

—

 

However, Kolivan was currently not at the base, as Keith found out later after the training session. They had to deliver an information to other Coalition members with several other Blades, and departed very early in the cycle before everyone were awake. Disappointed but not discouraged, Keith went to find Antok instead.

 

Thirty minutes later, he found Antok in the mess hall, down on the Level Seven. The Sub-Leader was busy rearranging the tables with three of the largest Blades Keith had ever seen. Even so, Antok was still the largest of all.

 

Antok too had white ribbons tied at the end of his braids, replacing his usual beads. His frills glowed, which meant that he was also in a very good mood. When his single eye found Keith, he waved.

 

“Hey, why are we redecorating the mess hall?” Keith asked as he approached Antok. Gone were the usual table arrangement. By the wall, some Blade tech was adjusting a holo-projector.

 

“For the feast, of course!” Antok replied cheerfully, the glowy dots on his frills shifted from magenta to pink.

 

_ Wait _ . “What feast?”

 

“The  _ Dral’Zaivarti _ feast and gift-swapping! Everyone in the base will be joining”, Antok explained as he went back to his work.

 

_ What gift-swap?! _

 

—

 

“Regris! Why didn’t you tell me there’ll be a gift-swap!” Keith nearly screamed as he burst into the communication room, where Regris was doing his shift. Regris was so surprised by Keith’s sudden entrance that he toppled off his chair. 

 

“Oh hey Keith, aren’t you supposed to be at— ooh.” Regris sank back to the floor, purposely avoiding Keith’s glare. “ _ Vihtrizi _ . I knew I was forgetting something…”

 

“You  _ were _ supposed to tell me?!” Keith  _ really _ wanted to strangle his boyfriend right now. 

 

When he went to space, he thought he was finally free from those dumb Christmas gift-giving routines that people back at the Garrison loved so much. Apparently not, because Galra, as it turned out, had their own version of Christmas.

 

He didn’t even know what  _ Dral’Zaivarti  _ was about, except that 1) it shared Christmas’ sentiment of ‘spreading the cheer’ or whatever, 2) he was supposed to wear white clothes, 3) the feast was obligatory, and 4) there was a gift-giving too.

 

If this was like Christmas, he could only assume that the feast would be held later in the cycle. Which meant, he only had several hours until then—several hours to find gifts for  _ everyone _ in the base. How was he supposed to do that?

 

“Keith. Keith, stop walking in circles like that. You make my eyes spin”, Regris’ voice broke through his musing and— _ huh _ , Keith didn’t realize that he was doing it.

 

“I need to steal a ship so I can go to the space mall to buy gifts for everyone else in the base”, Keith blurted out before he could even stop himself.

 

“Whoa! Not so drastic!” Regris was immediately up on his feet. “Also, the gift-swap event is not obligatory. You can give them loose cords like I did two  _ dralsa _ ago. Huh… I guess that was the reason why nobody gave me anything last  _ Dral’Zaivarti _ …” he ended with a mumble

 

_ Loose cord _ —Keith wanted to smack his head.

 

He  _ supposed _ he could give joke gifts like Regris did; but everyone in the Blades had been warm and welcoming to him. Thace taught him how to read and speak Standard Galran in case his translator broke, while Ulaz helped him adjusting to his new diet. Antok loved to give him small things and trinkets, claiming that they looked like him or reminded the big Galra of him, while Slav would fuss and fret over him like a mother space-hen.

 

And then there was Kolivan and Regris.

 

As for Kolivan… Keith was almost ninety percent sure that new recruits  _ usually _ didn’t get the same treatment. Kolivan took him in nearly every mission, and the only time they didn’t was when the mission required them to blend in—which Keith  _ couldn’t _ do because of his Non-Galran appearance. Kolivan gave him birthday gifts despite none of the Paladins knew or remembered about it. When Keith confronted them about how in the Universe they knew when his birthday was, they were being extremely tight-lipped about it.

 

And Regris…

 

Regris came to the Blade’s medbay under Shiro’s heavy scrutiny to congratulate Keith for passing the Trials and to apologize for beating him up. That first meeting left quite an impression in Keith. After that battle in the Central Command, Regris was the only one out of two people who consoled Keith for losing Shiro. The other one had been Kolivan.

 

Not even once Regris tried to tell Keith that his attempt to find Shiro back was fruitless. He even helped Keith whenever he could, however he could; he hacked into the Empire frequency trying to find if there was any radio chatter about finding the Black Paladin. 

 

Regris lost his entire family to the Empire. Maybe that was the reason why he could really empathize with Keith’s grief.

 

They became closer and closer, until they became both friends and lovers. Quiet conversations in the communication room where Regris mostly spent his cycles became the norm, and Keith didn’t regret it to be completely head over heels for Regris.

 

It was terrifying.

 

Within the short time Keith was staying with the Blades, every single one of its member became very important parts of his life that he would defend to his death, even if he really didn’t know how to show it. This gift-swap event would be the perfect time for him to show how much he appreciated them all.

 

“Keith,  _ mané _ , you’re scaring me”, Regris hissed softly and Keith could feel the gentle press of his hand over his shoulder.

 

Keith looked up to his boyfriend, plans whirling inside his head. “Do you think synthesizer units can make colorful papers?”

 

—

 

As it turned out, it could. Regris had a  _ blast _ figuring out the input codes to make the correct paper that Keith wanted and their shared quarter ended up looking like someone had exploded a bunch of confetti bombs inside it.

 

“What are we making, exactly?” Regris asked. He had a sticky not-paper stuck on his ridged head; Keith didn’t think Regris realized it yet.

 

“Holiday cards”, Keith answered as he focused back to his own handiwork. “On Earth, there’s this holiday that’s really similar to  _ Dral’Zaivarti _ , it’s called Christmas. Sometimes people give each other holiday cards instead of presents.”

 

Regris let out a thoughtful hum.

 

Keith cut the papers into 5x7 size for each cards. Thankfully, he brought scissors and glue stick in his belt pouch when he left Earth, so he could use them to make the cards. So concentrated he was on his handiwork that he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt something was touching his tongue.

 

_ His tongue _ .

 

Regris was howling with laughter as he pulled his tail back. “Your tongue! Oh my stars, you stuck your tongue out like— _ like a cub! _ ”

 

Heat burned Keith’s face; he didn’t realize that he was sticking his tongue out the whole time he was concentrating. “If you’re not gonna help me then leave!”

 

That made Regris pause.

 

“You are so grumpy.” He crossed his arms and pouted, plopping next to Keith. 

 

His silence lasted for roughly ten minutes. “Hey, that looks like Kolivan!”

 

“It is”, Keith replied, busy gluing the red paper shaped like Kolivan’s brow marking. “Normally Christmas cards have Santa Claus or Christmas tree, but I don’t think you guys’ll know what they are.”

 

“What is ‘Santa Claus’?” Regris asked. Keith didn’t need to look at him to know that he had his tail swaying slowly in confusion.

 

“Exactly.”

 

—

 

The cards were finished by the time Kolivan returned to the base. Keith took an actual water shower to wash off glue and paper from his skin, and when he came out of the shower, Regris shoved Keith’s own formalwear and suggested that he wore something nice instead of his usual armor.

 

Regris himself was wearing loose pants tucked into his boots and white hooded cape thrown over it, leaving his chest bare. “I hate wearing white clothes. Did you know that I always managed to stain my white formalwear every  _ Dral’Zaivarti? _ ”

 

Keith could only imagine. Wearing white clothes to attend a big feast sounded like a recipe for disaster.

 

After Keith was being inducted fully into the Blade ranks, Kolivan asked him if he wanted to make his formalwear from his own culture. Having severely disconnected even from his Human culture, Keith had said yes immediately.

 

He was very young when he was being handed into the foster system, but he knew that his dad was mixed. He vividly remembered his dad telling him about his Chinese-Indonesian heritage and tracing his fingers over the cloud-pattern  _ batik _ . Over his teenage years, he was trying to find anything about his culture, but it wasn’t easy.

 

So when Kolivan asked it, Keith pulled out a datapad and spent his mid-cycle drawing the clothes he remembered seeing in a huge dusty book from a public library near his school.  _ Baju koko _ , it was called. And the  _ batik  _ was called  _ megamendung _ . His drawing wasn’t good, but the Blade’s fashion department translated it perfectly that Keith almost cried the moment it was handed to him.

 

Keith was grateful that despite everything, he still remembered how to wear the  _ batik _ so it wouldn’t hinder his movement. He wore it over his usual dark undersuit and boots, before putting his white  _ baju koko _ on. 

 

“You look very nice”, Regris commented.

 

Keith blushed and took Regris’ hand in his. Together, they headed to the mess hall. 

 

The first thing that greeted them was the smell of food, it was nothing like any other meals before. It seemed everyone were really going all out for the feast, just like what they did with the decorations. White and indigo holo-banners flickered on the walls while the usual lights were dimmed. It made the whole atmosphere of the room seem more solemn.

 

The tables were arranged into one so everyone could eat from the same table. Antok was already sitting there, along with Thace and several Blades currently available at Olkarion base. There were only a few of them; Keith counted fifteen at most.

 

Antok was wearing loose white robe with beaded collar and sleeves. The beads rattled whenever he moved. It was very weird to see someone so masculine wearing something that flashy, but Keith knew by now that aliens didn’t follow Human gender presentation. Thace also wore similar robe made from strange iridescent material., minus the beads. 

 

“Let’s go sit next to Antok”, Regris said, pulling him along.

 

Unlike any paramilitary organization that Keith knew, the Blades were very loose about their chain of command. Everyone could come to ask for high-ranked members’ help and anyone had the same chance to be sent out on the same kind of mission. During mealtime, anyone could sit next to Kolivan, Antok, or other high-ranked Blades. It was super weird.

 

Keith sat down between Regris and Antok; the latter scooted his chair over to give Keith more room. 

 

“I like your formalwear”, Antok commented. “It is beautiful.”

 

Keith blinked, not expecting the comment. “Thanks. I like yours too. It’s so… sparkly?”

 

Apparently that was the right thing to say, because it made the spots on Antok’s frills glow from happiness. It was adorable.

 

“Keith, why don’t you try this food? It’s organic”, Thace offered from across the table. 

 

Keith eyed the plate Thace was holding; organic food, which meant that it was non-synthesized food. Keith wondered how much preparation it took for this feast—the Blades normally didn’t use organic materials for their cooking, as it was less expensive to synthesize everything. Not to mention that according to Ulaz, it was easier to control nutritional value of synthesized food.

 

Even so, everyone agreed that organic food tasted better.

 

“But… aren’t we supposed to wait for Kolivan?” Keith tried to back away, even if his mouth was watering from all the food in front of them.

 

“Why are we supposed to wait for Kolivan?” Thace asked back, head tilting in confusion. “Is this another Human thing?”

 

_ Right _ , Keith thought. 

 

“Do not worry, Keith. Even if you eat Kolivan’s favorites, you still eat much less than Thace”, Antok hissed out a laugh. Regris followed his suit next to Keith.

 

“Hey!” Thace snarled, looking up from his plate. Keith rolled his eyes to Regris and they laughed together.

 

Thace passed the plate to Antok, who promptly dumped a pile of meat and vegetables on Keith’s plate. The meat looked deliciously juicy, oozing grease and—if Keith was correct— _ blood _ . When Keith dug into the food, his mouth felt like it was exploding from how  _ delicious  _ it was. Galra really knew how to cook their meat, not too overcooked or overspiced, so it still had its original taste. 

 

And Thace said it was organic?

 

Keith was in  _ heaven _ .

 

He finished his first plate when Kolivan entered the room, wearing white fur coat and headdress made out of carved bones. The Blades stood up and greeted them, while Antok helped them pull up their seat at the head of table.

 

“Leader is the last descendant of one of Lorian sea-tribes”, Regris explained in Keith’s ears. Keith recognized Loria from his historical studies, and gave Regris a subtle nod.

 

“Another cycle, another  _ Dral’Zaivarti _ ”, Kolivan began their speech, though their shoulders slumped one moment later. “Day of Revival, when the Great Emperor Zarkon was elevated to Godhood, according to historical texts. I do not understand why we are still celebrating it if we are fighting against everything that the God-Emperor stands for.”

 

“Because presents are nice!” Antok shouted. The table erupted with laughter, while Kolivan turned to their mate with fond exasperation.

 

“Because  _ Dral’Zaivarti  _ has been reduced of its sanctity, so it is an act of rebellion to continue with the trifles”, Thace added. More cheers and laughter. Keith turned to Kolivan and saw the way their ears flicked in irritation.

 

Jokes, he noted, were okay. So it wasn’t really a formal feast, after all. Keith could do jokes.

 

“I like Antok’s reason better, sorry Thace”, he said, turning back to Thace. Next to him, Antok laughed so hard he almost toppled back on his chair.

 

“Well, I like Thace’s reason better”, Regris added. “Sounds  _ cool _ .”

 

“Oooh, lovers spat!” someone down the table shouted over the laughter. Nuala, Keith noticed. 

 

Regris flicked his tongue at her, before pulling Keith close to him possessively. More teasing came from the table, though Keith found he didn’t really mind. He turned to Kolivan, who still tried to look serious despite their quiet chuckling.

 

“Alright, you fools. Let us start the feast!” Kolivan announced. “For  _ Dral’Zaivarti! _ ”

 

This time, Keith cheered along with his fellow Blades. His  _ family _ .

 

—

 

The last event for the cycle was the gift-swapping.

 

Surprisingly, everyone were still sober, probably because alcohol was banned from the base and they were all expected to be ready any moment. Keith found that he didn’t mind. He wanted to be sober to see everyone’s reaction, anyway.

 

Keith handed his cards to Antok, Regris, Thace, and Kolivan. He made one for Ulaz too, but apparently the Blade medic was busy helping refugees at Olkarion Central Medical so he couldn’t attend the feast.

 

Galra were not used with papers, he found out, and Kolivan accepted their card as if it would break and crumble any moment. When they saw their own face smiling at them from the card, they let out a small chuckle.

 

“The craftsmanship is beautiful, Keith. Thank you”, they said. Keith blushed up to his ears; it was just a card.

 

“It’s  _ paper _ ”, Thace commented, running his fingers over and over as if it was made out of alien material. To him, maybe it was. After all, Galra people achieved FTL ten thousand years ago; maybe paper was no longer something that they used. “It’s made out of  _ paper _ .”

 

“Yes, Thace. It’s paper.” Keith wanted to roll his eyes, but Thace’s reaction was absolutely hilarious that he just couldn’t. “Look the other side, I wrote something for you. With ink.”

 

Thace flipped the card and promptly lost his mind. Keith chuckled, though he was actually feeling embarrassed. His handwriting wasn’t that great, and his Galran handwriting was even worse.

 

“The place I grew up still uses paper. This is  _ nothing _ .” Antok shrugged when Keith asked him why it didn’t seem to surprise him, though the large Galra’s tone was clearly teasing.

 

“Oh yeah? How about  _ this? _ ” Keith took portable black light and shined it over Antok’s paper art, causing the invisible ink that he used to  _ glow _ . Almost immediately, the whole table crowded around Antok to see the ‘paper magic’, as they called it.

 

“ _ Peasants _ . Look at my card!” Regris shouted from where he was standing above the chair. When he opened his card, a snowflake chain spilled down to the floor—Keith had to synthesize a long paper and cut the whole thing with his luxite blade because none of his paper-cutting blade was sharp enough for it.

 

Keith backed away when the other Blades turned to Regris, not wanting to get trampled by a horde of curious Galra. He stood next to Kolivan, who was nursing a glass of  _ agai _ .

 

“If I knew paper cards can make Galra so hype, I’d send Zarkon a bunch of them", Keith said, shaking his head.

 

“Perhaps not Zarkon", Kolivan countered. Right, because Zarkon was  _ ancient _ . He was probably alive the last time Galra still used papers. “Perhaps his commanders and his entire chain of command?”

 

Suddenly, a mental image of Sendak getting a glitter-bombed card flashed in Keith’s mind. It was so ridiculous that he couldn’t help but laugh. That would make the evil Galra even more angry at them for sure.

 

Kolivan handed him a glass of  _ agai _ and Keith accepted it gratefully. The dark sparkling drink kinda tasted like fruit punch. Space fruit punch? It was pretty rare for the Blades to serve it; usually only reserved to special occasions like when there were agents returning from high-risk missions. Apparently holiday feast was one of those occasions too.

 

“Here.” Kolivan handed him another thing, this time a silvery box. Keith took it, placed his glass over a hover-tray, before opening the gift.

 

Inside it was a personal communicator, except smaller so it fit in Keith’s smaller palm. The case was dark with thin indigo line splitting the middle, but when Keith turned it on, it became transparent and the UI looked similar to other Blade techs. 

 

He saw Regris and other Blade agents owning something similar to it. There was camera, messaging system, something like an ebook reader, and even a starmap. It was a perfect replacement for his own Earth phone, which was useless here in space anyway.

 

“Don’t bring it during missions”, Kolivan warned. Made sense, Keith thought. If it really acted as a communication device, it would be dangerous if it fell to the wrong hand—the Empire could probably track them back to the Headquarters.

 

Keith flung himself to Kolivan, wrapping his arms around their torso. “Thank you.”

 

Kolivan patted his back and ruffled his hair affectionately. Keith pulled away, embarrassed.

 

“I better go find Regris”, he told Kolivan, before running into the crowd. He passed Antok, Thace, and a couple younger Blade members that Keith knew but weren’t really close with like Dartok and Nuala. All of them gave him something; in Thace’s case, he also gave something from Ulaz and Slav.

 

Antok gave him a holo-projector to display any picture he took. Meanwhile, Thace gave him a game console full of various Galran video games—to practice his Galran, Thace reasoned. Ulaz gave him a blanket that was so soft and so huge Keith could burrito himself in. Apparently, Ulaz was worried of him getting cold because he didn’t have fur like Kolivan or couldn’t regulate his own temperature. He was too impatient to open the other presents, though, but Dartok and Nuala didn’t seem to mind. Nuala even gave him a teasing snarl, before shoving him off to find his boyfriend.

 

Keith walked out of the mess hall weighed down with presents and feeling like he was detached from his body. He still couldn’t believe that people cared about him enough to give him presents— _ presents! _

 

It all felt so surreal to him. Not a year ago he had nothing but a clothes on his back, a knife from his mother that connected him to the Blade of Marmora, and a small duffel bag filled with essentials.

 

He was initially going to put the presents in his quarter before going to find Regris. But apparently, Regris was already back in their shared quarter, sitting at the top bunk and surrounded by his own presents. He already shed his cape and changed into sleepwear. 

 

Knowing Regris, his boyfriend was feeling overwhelmed with the crowd and left early. Not that Keith minded; he definitely could relate to that.

 

“Hey”, Keith greeted, before carefully settling his presents on his own bunk. Someone already cleaned the room. Regris probably got the cleaning droids to do it.

 

“Hey. What did you get?” Regris asked, hanging upside down from his bunk.

 

“Just some stuff”, Keith answered vaguely. He heard soft plop behind him where Regris landed on the floor, before immediately going through Keith’s presents. Keith allowed him; he still needed to put the holo-projector and game console on the table anyway.

 

“I can’t believe you never owned your own comm. Didn’t the Alteans give you any?”

 

“Hmmm, nope. I won’t be able to use it anyway”, Keith replied. “I can’t read Altean language.”

 

“They never taught you Altean language?!” Regris turned sharply.

 

Keith sighed. “It’s not like that. We’re always busy with training and Coran always has something to do. Meanwhile, Allura is… Allura. There’s just no time.”

 

_ But that wasn’t entirely true _ , the traitorous voice inside his head whispered. Keith was with the Blade of Marmora for roughly two months, and yet he learned so much more than when he was still with the Paladins for two years. 

 

When he was with the Blade of Marmora, there was always  _ something new _ to learn about and Keith  _ enjoyed _ learning about it all. Even better, he had good teachers.

 

Thace was still recovering from all the torture he endured several months ago, yet he still spared his time between resting and doing physical exercise to teach Keith Galran language. Meanwhile, Kolivan  _ loved _ teaching him because he was a fast learner—apparently, because Humans lived shorter, his own ability to absorb information was way better than Galra.

 

Antok was a  _ scholar _ before he joined the Blades—who would’ve thought. He knew about a lot of subjects like xenobiochemistry, xenobotany, and astrogeology that he would gladly teach Keith. Sometimes Keith would help him tending to his greenhouse, full of alien plants that Keith  _ itched _ to show to Pidge.

 

_ And Regris… _

 

Regris taught him everything else, about how to use Galran computers, to navigate his way in the intricate maze that was the Blade of Marmora base. About how it was  _ okay _ to cling to hope, or to have some walls up because of abandonment issue. About fun things that  _ normal _ Galran younglings did—playing games, talking about trivial things late into the cycle, learning about things,  _ growing _ .

 

“Keith?” Regris’ voice broke him out of his musing.

 

“It’s nothing.” Keith shook his head, before activating his comm. “You can take pictures with this, right?”

 

“Yes! Here, let me show you.” Regris touched an icon and— huh, so Galra had different icon for camera.  _ Obviously _ . “Alright, smile!”

 

_ Space-selfie _ , Keith thought. He was taking a space-selfie with his alien boyfriend, with an alien device that his alien family gave to him.

 

On  _ Dral’Zaivarti _ , you were growing into a better person—that was what Regris said. Keith didn’t feel that he was a better person, but he was  _ doing better _ .

 

And still he had so much growing to do.

**Author's Note:**

> go check [my tumblr](https://xblackpaladin.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
